Zeb…

“Back again, huh?” the big bloke with the thatch of blond hair waved me forward and moved the tattered red velvet rope aside to let me in the front door.

“Ah, yeah. Duty calls.”

“Hey, man, a friendly, unsolicited piece of advice?”

I paused and looked up at the bulky bouncer for the titty bar and gave a nod. He twisted his mouth as if trying to decide how much or how little to say and finally sighed, saying in a low voice that was just between me and him, “Tiff is too good for this place, always has been. She’s meant for way better than this town has to offer. Not many girls in here I can say that about. Don’t treat her like a chore, get to know her, you might be surprised.”

I raised my eyebrows and nodded, “Good on ya, Bro. Thanks for saying so; I’m glad you have her back.”

“No problem.”

I thought about what ol’ Zeke had to say as I went through the door, his parting shot to me, “Get a seat by the stage, you made it in time for her last dance.”

I’d never looked at a protection job as anything but a professional gig before, even if I’d never quite done it professionally, as in been paid for it. I didn’t exactly watch big-money types in the traditional sense with their suits and high rises and their expensive gadgets. I’d watched the backs of my bro’s, and back home, a high-rolling gang boss or two. Something told me Dragon had other things in mind when he’d put me with the stripper, and I figured I would need to see how it played out. I knew if I asked him about it, he’d just raise his eyebrows and tell me to figure it out for myself.

The heavy electric of the song that was starting pulsed from the speakers and the announcer guy was saying something about some bird named Francesca. I dropped into an empty seat at the end of the stage, glad to take a load off after a night on my feet. Tiffany, all dolled up with a black lace mask covering her survivor’s mark, came strutting out onto the stage. I’d wondered how she handled that, and now I knew, but this wasn’t the girl with the tight shoulders, high-strung and throwing calculating looks at everything. She wasn’t trying to decide if the next thing she did was going to send the person she was around off, packing a sad.

No, this woman strutting out of the dark was the queen the song named her. This woman was mean as and I wanted to see her more often. The idea I’d had back at her place took root and started to grow when she started to actually dance, and the girl could dance. She slunk along the brass pole at the end of the stage and her lean body was poetry in motion.

She was fit, everything tight, flat, and toned. Her lightly-tanned body was slightly dewed with sweat. The way she moved had every man here in the bar dying of thirst and wanting to lick the beaded moisture off her skin. She was too much, and I settled back to enjoy the show while still keeping the other blokes around in sight and mind.

My attention to anyone but her kind of went out the window when she laid down on the stage. She arched her back provocatively over the edge and looked square at me. I stared back into her eyes and all I saw was an emptiness. A disconnect, like she was all inside her own head; in her own little world.

The music faded around me, my mind turned to the weeping, so much like singing, of so many of my people’s women that had walked this same sort of path back home. It broke my heart some, but then a spark of recognition lit deep in her brown eyes. I had to smile back when a smile curved her red painted lips and she arched further, one hand gripping the lush globe of one breast, the other drifting tantalizingly down her body, as she rocked to the beat.

She knew what she was doing, that one. I slipped my wallet out of my back pocket and held out a twenty; I’d intended to buy her breakfast anyway, on the way out to her place, which was out in the wops on the far edge of town. She rolled over onto all fours and leaned out, capturing the paper between her teeth and drawing back, moving with the music, back on her sharp heels in a flash and writhing elegantly against the pole. She had it. Raw sexuality, a confidence I wished she could wear as easily off the stage as she did on it. I mean, it was just begging to become a permanent thing, it just needed a little help along.

I have to admit, after our little display, the money came pouring in. All from the guys around us hoping for the same kind of attention. She winked over her shoulder at me, gathered her money, blew another guy a kiss, and moved backstage, and I had to grin. She’d pulled off about ten times the sex appeal of any of these other girls and she’d never even taken off her bra or panties.

Zeke was right, the girl was too good for this place, but it wasn’t my job to save her from herself. It was just my job to save her from a guy who might not even push it. I got up and drifted toward the back and she reached out from the curtains and caught my hand, drawing me back to the private rooms.

“Ah, what’s this?” I asked.

“A twenty buys you a private dance, I thought that’s what you wanted.”

“Eh, nah, I just wanted to buy you breakfast.”

She stopped tugging me along insistently and turned, “A rain check then? Because I’m starving.”

I grinned, “Chur, me too.”

“You parked out front?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“Okay, meet me around back. I’ll be dressed and out there before you know it. I’d rather not run the gauntlet out front if it’s all the same.” She made a face. “Every one of them would try to take me home like a lost puppy.”

“Ah, yeah, they’re all having a hell of a piss up out there, ain’t they?” She blinked and I smiled harder, “A party, a hard one,” I translated.

She smiled and said, “Thanks for remembering,” and then she was gone through the curtains at the end of the hall. I went back out front and gave Zeke a nod.

“Headed around back?” he asked.

“Eh, yeah.”

He looked at his watch and nodded. “About that time, I’ll see her out.”

“Appreciate it, bro.”

I left him tapping the shoulder of another bouncer who was talking in his cell. The guy nodded and Zeke disappeared inside, through the building.

Nek minute, I was around back, leaning against the bike, expecting to be waiting a bit; most women almost always taking longer than they say. Not her, though. The back door opened, the big blond bouncer holding it open for her. She said her goodnight and he gave her a nod and, fists buried deep in her pockets against the cold, she stepped as lightly across the cracked blacktop of the back lot in her flat boots as she had across the mirrored stage in those killer heels of hers.

“Hi,” she said, and while the choice lace mask she’d had on inside was gone, her hair covered and did the job of hiding her warrior’s mark, now.

“Hey,” I greeted back, and held out a helmet to her.

“So, where did you have in mind to eat?” she asked.

“Know a diner, open twenty-four hours. American food; ain’t bad.”

“Sounds good; I could use the calories,” she declared.

“Too right, must be a workout in there every night, eh?”

“It can be.”

She got onto the bike behind me and settled. I started it up and when her arms were firm around my waist, I pulled out of the lot and onto the road.

The ride was brisk, and if I was cold, I sure felt sorry for her. She didn’t have the same amount of muscle or mass that I did. I kept thinking about her dance back at the strip club and the more I thought about it, the more that blank look haunted me. It also bothered me that as much as it did, I still couldn’t help that my prick stirred every time I pictured her taking my money between her teeth and those rich red lips of hers.

I pulled up to a stoplight a few blocks down from the diner and she called out over the engine, “It’s all right, you know!”

“What?”

“That it turned you on. I know I’m good at my job.”

“Sounds to me like you maybe put in a little extra effort, eh?” I called back, flirting a bit, sure, but a bit uneasy she read me so well.

“Maybe I did,” she agreed and I almost didn’t hear her over the chug of my old girl when she added, “Sorry.”

The light turned green and I powered through the intersection and down the road, pulling smoothly into the car park of the diner. I cut the engine and didn’t say anything. She seemed content to not say anything either, which was alright with me.

I opened the door for her and let her into the warmth of the place first. Hayley looked up from behind the counter.

“Hey, you!” she said brightly.

“Gidday, Cuz.”

“Well, good night,” she said brightly and I smiled. “Two?”

“Eh, yeah.” I tried not to blush. I was actually pretty shy around the club when it came to the ladies, and didn’t think that Hayley would be here so late. Blue’s shift must’ve changed again.

“Hi, I’m Hayley,” she said leaning around me to see Tiff.

“Uh, hi… I’m Tiffany…” she said back and her voice sounded sus, or rather like she found Hayley to be sus.

“Blue, my husband, is one of Zeb’s club brother’s, are you and Zeb..?” she trailed off and left Tiffany to fill in the blank.

“Ah, don’t put her on the spot, Girl!” I cried and Hayley laughed.

“Sorry, curiosity gets the better of me anymore.”

It was true, she and Blue were a matched pair and they tended to bring out the best in each other and now that Cell was gone? They thrived. Bugger all, he’d carked it hard. Left Blue and Hayley in a right state but I can’t say I was sad to see him go. He was a right bastard more often than not.

Hayley led us to a booth and Tiff, still hiding behind that glossy fall of hair said, “It’s okay,” but left it to me to elaborate.

“Tiff is a new friend,” I said for lack of anything else to come up with. It wasn’t no one’s business why we were really together, now was it?

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Tiff. I’ll be back to take your order in a second.”

“Thanks,” Tiffany murmured and opened her menu.

I let her hide behind it until some of the tension left the set of her shoulders and she looked like she’d made a decision.

“You knew it was coming, I reckon,” I said and she sighed, setting the menu down and looking at me plaintively.

“You want to know everything, I take it?”

“Not everything, just what you want to tell me. I don’t need to pry.”

Actually, I did want to know everything, but I didn’t want to scare her into clamming up. Easy does it, we had time. I didn’t know whether this bloke would bother after he got out, but judging by the state of her face, it wasn’t likely that he’d ease off and go away. It was personal what he’d done to her, and any man willing to go that far against his woman truly thought that way. That she was his woman, to do with what he pleased. Some blokes just didn’t get that wasn’t how things worked.

“It was my best friend Delia’s birthday, and I wanted to go out but Silas didn’t…”

She told me about what he did to her face, but she wouldn’t look at me while she did it. I felt angry for her, and it solidified my idea I’d had that morning, the one that’d resurfaced while watching her dance.

“Real piece of work, that one,” I said and she nodded, but still wouldn’t look at me. Instead, she stared fixedly at some invisible point out in the diner.

Hayley came by and took our order, but it was pretty clear by the brittle, mechanical way that Tiffany put hers in, she didn’t have much of an appetite left. I felt bad for that.

“So what happens now?” she asked quietly.

“How do y’ mean?”

“Well, he gets out tomorrow, and you can’t be my shadow forever.”

“Too right, I had a few ideas about that.”

“Yeah, like what?”

Hayley drifted over and set down a cup and saucer of hot water and another saucer with a little metal teapot on it with more hot water. Tiffany selected a tea bag from the little box of them at the edge of the table and set about fixing her cup with honey and lemon.

I nodded thanks when Hayley returned in short order to top up my coffee, and with a smile, she left us alone again.

“First thing, we’re gonna teach you how to shoot. That’s the easiest, but what are you going to do if you can’t get to the gun we’ll get you?”

“Die, probably. Horribly… painfully.” She looked grim, but not at all resigned. Anger painted her pretty face and I smiled.

“Not if I can help it. What are your days off?”

“Today and tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday.”

“Sweet as, mine too.”

She frowned. “What exactly do you do, anyway?”

“Bouncer at a cowboy bar; took over for one of my bros who started a family. Didn’t have time for it anymore.”

“Ah,” she raised her cup, “To bar workers and strippers, at least the schedules are making it fairly easy for us.”

“I’ll drink to that,” I said with a grin and clicked my coffee mug against hers.

“So, what exactly did you have in mind?” she asked.

“Well, I’d like to get you trained up on how to use a gun, and I think you should be able to defend yourself close-quarters like, in case he comes around wanting a hiding.”

“Want to what?” she looked at me wide-eyed and a little stricken.

“Sorry, that means wanting to fight you. This way you can fight back.”

“He’s a rodeo star, there is no fighting him. He’s twice my size, and plus, that is totally not what I thought you meant.”

I frowned, “What’d ya think I meant?”

She raised her eyebrows and gave me a flat look and I still wasn’t getting it. I shook my head and she sighed.

“Rape is such an ugly word, but it can and does happen even to women like me.”

“Oh, no! That’s not what I meant at all, eh.”

“It’s a possibility, though,” she said grimly. “There are worse things than dying; for me that’s one of them.”

“Hey, ain’t gonna happen, we’ll get you right.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Nah, I know I am.”

“Alright, here’s your plates and here’s your tab, you guys can settle up any time you’d like.” Hayley set down our food silencing any further conversation for the time being. She smiled brightly and whisked a ticket out of her apron pocket, setting it at the edge of the table before heading back into the kitchen. Tiff set a twenty on top of it. A twenty stained with red lipstick.

“Eh, no I got this,” I said and she smiled at me and shook her head.

“You said you were buying me dinner with it, remember?”

“Ah, I did, that. Didn’t I?”

I let Hayley take it after adding a bit more to it to cover the rest of the tab and a hefty tip.

Tiffany smiled and it held an edge of sadness. We didn’t talk much for the rest of the meal. Hayley came by and took the pay with thanks and I honestly had to say that I felt a pang of something, watching that twenty with its bit of red color whisked away. Couldn’t stop thinking about it, actually.

When we got out to the bike, I felt a bit bad that it was so cold but I said, “Forgot something, be right back, okay?”

“Sure,” Tiff murmured and leaned her shapely butt against the seat of my bike. I ran back inside and fished out my wallet, going to Hayley at the counter.

“What’s up?” she asked.

“That twenty we paid you with, I’d like to buy it.”

Hayley laughed a little, incredulous. “I put it in the register, how will I know which one it is?”

“No worries,” I told her, “I’ll know.”

She opened up the register and fanned them out and the third bill down I pointed it out and said, “That one.” She handed it across to me and I passed her a couple of tens out of my wallet.

“Thanks.”

“Sure, no problem,” she said, mystified.

I went back out to take Tiff home, her somber yet curious gaze following me from the front door, down the steps, and all the way down the car park to where she sat, patiently waiting.

“All good, then,” I said cheerfully and she gave me a nod. She didn’t ask and I wasn’t volunteering. It was a quiet ride back to her place as far as the conversation went.